"Where were you when you were sh$%!"

Saturday was FA Cup 4th round day, and Ipswich were away to Chelsea. Now for the benefit of my American friends, there are 4 leagues in the UK football (That's football, the game where you use your feet to kick a ball, and not the one where you wear an inordinate amount of padding and run with the ball in your hands whilst trying to avoid other people in padding trying to decapitate you), The Premiership (The top tier), the Championship (Next one down) and League 1 and League 2.

Chelsea are in the Premiership and are owned by a Russian billionaire, who has pumped 100's of millions into the club. Players "earn" between £70,000 to £100,000 a week playing for Chelsea, whereas Ipswich have recently been bought by a millionaire who has given our manager £12 million to play with (And our players "earn" upto £12,000 a week, just don't get me started on footballers wages ...).

The big problem with Chelsea is now they're owned by a billionaire, the average fan can no longer afford to goto matches. My ticket on Saturday was £24.50 - A FA Cup promotion - However for the average league game the seat I was in would cost £50! I've often been in a London cab, driven by a Chelsea supporter who no longer goes to games due to the expense ..

Which is why we spent the majority of the second half singing to the Chelsea fans "Where were you when you were sh%&!" ...

We lost 3-1, but were drawing 1-1 at haf-time after we equalised their opener. The celebrations for our goal were immense, a real hug a stranger moment! It was only when people started to make their way down to the bar before half-time (To beat the rush ...) did we realise that during our celebrations we had actually managed to move one seat to the right and the person on the end was stood in the aisle!

6000 Ipswich fans made their way to the game, and where we were stood appeared to be where the singers were congregated. Come the end of the match and after all the singing, I had developed a voice that sounded like I'd been chewing sandpaper whilsting smoking 120 cigarettes - but it was worth it.

We didn't expect to win (Though Southend, a team from League 1 had drawn with Chelsea in the previous round) but went along for the day out and the hope we might sneak something. We had our chances, and could have gone in 2-1 up at the break, but two fantastic free-kicks by Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard in the 2nd half defeated our plucky lads ...! The gulf between the billionaire owned Chelsea and the millionaire owned Ipswich was summed up quite nicely in the 2nd half when Chelsea took off Michael Ballack (A World Cup and European Championship runner-up with Germany, and twice Champions League runner-up) and replaced him with Deco (two times Champions League winner and Portugal international), whereas we took off Tommy Miller (hasn't won anything but has never missed a penalty!) and replaced him with Alan Quinn (Won an internet player of the year award in 2002 ...)!

And the worst part of the day? After being surprised how quick it was to get out of Chelsea and back to Liverpool Street (We left the ground at 5pm and were back at Liverpool St by 6pm), it took 30 minutes for McDonalds to produce my order! And I only wanted two chicken salsa wraps - not that hard is it?!